It's Sunday, usually my post cheat meal day and day of rest. Well I post poned my cheat meal to Valentine's day on Tuesday. I actually think this will be an interesting way to confuse my body again. It's also freakin' torture! I find myself more irritable and hungry today. I'm usually spot on when it comes to my meals, fortunately they are all prepped so I have stuck to them. I will admit that I have snuck a finger scoop of peanut butter and 5 cocoa almonds. I also took a spoonful of sugar free jelly. Okay, so I'm not failing too bad as there are obviously WORST things to do, however, it is slightly uncontrollable!

Right now I am on my second cup of tea, this one is decaffenated. It tends to help with my sugar cravings. I put a half a packet of Truvia in and sip it post meal to keep my cravings down.

I have two more meals to go for the day and then all day tomorrow to get through. If I see the cheat meal in sight, I can do it.

I have been reading other's blogs on here about feeling guilty about their cheat meals. For the past 2 weeks I have felt GREAT about my cheat meals. It is very important to make sure your cheat meal is MODERATE, not over induldgence. When I have a cheat meal it involves a lot of carbs, protein, and a higher amount of fats. Pizza, pasta, or burgers are ideal. I tend to avoid the desserts and alcohol. I actually prefer to begin with a small appetizer.

I found a great article explaining the importance of cheat meals. I cannot emphasize the importance enough as well as a day of rest.

"Metabolic Factors and Cheat Meals

What happens when we go on a very restrictive diet is that as time goes on, our metabolism begins to slow, adapting to the current calorie intake we are taking in.

So, for example, if you used to require 1800 calories to maintain your weight, but have been dieting at a level closer to around 1300, you now may only require 1600 calories to just maintain because of the fact the metabolism has slowed.

The degree of slow-down that you experience will vary depending on how severe your diet is and how lean you are to start with, but one thing is for certain, long periods of dieting almost always spell trouble for our metabolic rates.

When we incorporate in a cheat meal we essentially are helping trick our metabolisms into thinking that it's okay to speed up once again. Basically, that famine they thought was occurring, is not.

Psychological Mindset

In addition to this, cheat days will also really help to relieve our psychological mindset, making it that much easier to stick with a diet program.

As you've probably experienced at some point or another, when you are on a diet for a longer period of time, your cravings will begin to intensify.

In some cases, they may be too strong to handle and send you right off the diet altogether.

Therefore, by allowing yourself a meal where you can eat whatever you are craving, you remove this problem altogether."